That One Spot
by Tears of a Spirit
Summary: AU. One-Shot. Study spots were so hard to find these days. But maybe Annabeth wouldn't mind sharing one with a certain raven haired teen. Percabeth with a dash of Thalico. Slight language involved. DISCLAIMER: I do not own Percy Jackson. Nor do I not own the cover art.


That One Spot

A/N: Writers block once again… Also, please forgive me for any spelling errors, grammatical errors. I'm typing this with a severely injured knee and the pain is quite distracting. But… Anything for my faithful readers. I also got wind that SOPA is coming back. Maybe? I don't know.

DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN ANYTHING

* * *

_Dedicated to all my readers who were disappointed at _

_the lack of Percabeth in my other stories._

* * *

Perfect studying spots were hard to come by. That comfortable, quiet corner in the library? Taken. What about that awesome coffee shop down the street? Full. And the lonely cashier guy tries to hit on her. So when she found that that absolutely perfect study spot underneath that tree taken, can you really blame her for being possessive? Nope. But Annabeth Chase has had it up to HERE with people taking all of these spots.

A raven haired teen leaned against the tree with his arms behind his head, navy blue headphones in, and books sprawled out on the ground besides him. Annabeth trudged up to him and nudged him with her foot. The teen opened one eye to peer curiously at her.

"Excuse me, but you're in my spot." Annabeth declared.

He just sat up straighter and took off his headphones.

"Excuse me? Your spot?" he asked curiously.

Annabeth just glared at him. "Yeah. My spot. I've been using this spot for the past few weeks."

The guy just shook his head and smiled. He turned around and began to inspect the trunk of the tree while beckoning for her to do the same. Annabeth just stood there and scowled. He just shook his head in exasperation, grabbed her wrist and pulled her down to kneel beside him.

"H-Hey!" she shouted indignantly.

He just pointed at a group of scratches about a foot above the base of the tree. Annabeth squinted, trying to make sense of the scratches. Then the scratches formed letters.

"Percy J." she murmured.

The raven haired teen just grinned at her, delighted at her realization. "Yep. Percy Jackson. That's me!" he said gleefully.

Annabeth spluttered angrily. "Y-You can't do that! You can't just mark a tree and claim it like that!"

Percy just raised an eyebrow. "I didn't claim the tree. I claimed this spot."

Annabeth continued to splutter in a disbelieving way. Percy just put his headphones back in and resumed his previous position.

Annabeth just looked on as a feeling of despair began to overtake her. She sighed in defeat and got up.

"Well, have fun with the spot." she said sullenly, and not at all nicely.

"Wait!" he shouted. Annabeth turned around to see him bustling around on all fours, picking up books and various stationary items before leaning against the tree again and patting the ground next to him.

"Sit." he said. She plopped down and propped open the textbook she had been holding with her legs.

"Thanks." she murmured.

Percy just shrugged. "So I didn't catch your name. What is it?"

"Annabeth. Annabeth Chase. Now can you please be quiet? I've got a test in a couple hours."

Percy just raised his hands in mock surrender and put his headphones on.

* * *

It was Tuesday, and she was walking through the halls when she heard the sound of running feet behind her.

"Hey Annabeth, wait up!"

She turned and saw a familiar guy with navy headphones slung around his neck. Percy was jogging to catch up with her. Annabeth just stopped and waited.

"Hey, what class did you just have?" He asked a little breathlessly.

"History with Mr. Brunner. You?" she replied.

"Chemistry with Mr. D."

"Ok then. Where to now?"

Percy tilted his head thoughtfully. "Library?"

Annabeth shook her head. "That place is jam packed. I passed by on the way here."

Percy shrugs. "Outside under the tree?"

She just shrugged. Just then Percy nudged her hard in the side and take off like a rocket.

"Race ya!" she heard him shout over his shoulder.

"Hey! No fair!" she shouted in return.

The duo skidded through the halls, drawing many curious glances from students and teachers alike.

As they reached the tree, both of them rolled onto the ground laughing. They just lay there for a while, breathing heavily and smiling. Annabeth looked up at the same time Percy did and found herself staring into his sea green eyes. They quickly sat up, fighting back identical blushes and Annabeth cleared her throat noisily trying to get over the awkward moment.

"So… um. Do you have any tests coming up?" Annabeth asked.

Percy cocked his head to the side and thought. Then his face darkened. He continued to scowl as he took out a textbook and propped it open on his legs.

"Yeah. I have a calculus test in a couple days. God, I am NOT looking forward to this test."

Annabeth scooted closer to Percy and grabbed the book from right out of his lap.

"Hey! Give that back!" he shouted indignantly.

Annabeth just batted at his grabbing hands. "Hey! Stop! I'll help you study!"

Percy froze mid-lunge and lost his balance, falling to the ground. He looked up hopefully and spit out a couple leaves.

"Really? Thanks!"

Annabeth picked out a handful of problems for him to do. For an hour she watched him work, taking note of his strange habits. He would drum his feet to the beat of a song only he could hear. Or his left hand would continuously snap its fingers. And the weirdest to her was that he would puff out his cheeks like a little chipmunk when he was frustrated.

She thought it was kind of cute. Not that she'll admit it anyhow.

"Done!" came a cheery exclamation

Annabeth was rudely startled from her architecture-induced reverie by a piece of paper being thrust under her nose. Her head snapped back, nearly colliding with the tree trunk. She glared at Percy, who was smiling with an air of self-satisfaction, and took the paper.

Not surprisingly, he missed most of the problems.

Annabeth sighed in annoyance and rubbed her eyes wearily. She handed the corrected paper back to Percy, who was currently twiddling his thumbs and rocking back and forth.

Percy grimaced. "Woah. That is NOT good."

She pulled herself closer to where Percy sat.

"So here's where you went wrong." she said, as she pointed out the various parts of the problem, explaining what was supposed to happen to the obviously distraught boy.

At the end of their study session, Percy was feeling a bit more confident.

"Thanks Annie." He smiled.

"Don't call me that." she grumbled.

Percy just laughed. "Whatever you say Betsy."

Annabeth groaned.

* * *

A couple weeks later, it was nearing the season of sports. A month and a half more, to be exact. Annabeth was particularly nervous during this week.

She walked towards the tree, hoping to calm some of her nerves. It wouldn't do for her to be nervous about sports when she had a test in a couple hours. She found the spot under the tree occupied by none other than the raven haired teen. But this time, he was being kept company by a pale, black haired teen.

Percy quickly waved her over.

"Hey Annabeth, this is Nico Di Angelo. Nico, this is Annabeth Chase."

Nico smiled and nodded in greeting to Annabeth. Then he turned with a grin to Percy.

"Percy, you sly dog! So this is where you've been! Can't say I blame ya!"

Percy's jaw just dropped open and blush rose to color his cheeks. He spluttered incoherently for a couple seconds. Annabeth grinned.

"What a way with words, Percy." This was just too easy. Nico and Annabeth high fived. Annabeth could already tell that this was going to be a prosperous relationship.

Percy just dropped his head into his hands.

"I hate you both." came a muffled grumble.

Annabeth smiled. Then she remembered the problem at hand and her smile dropped.

"So, any of you do any sports?" Annabeth asked tentatively.

Percy rubbed his chin and looked at Nico, who was busy chugging down a water bottle. "Well, Nico here does track, right?"

Nico just nodded, his mouth too full of water to answer.

Annabeth turned to Percy. "What sports do you do?"

Percy opened his mouth to answer but Nico forced down an enormous swallow.

"Percy here is like a fish. He swims, and he swims FAST! Put the fastest person on another team next to him, and there won't be ANY competition." Nico exclaimed.

Annabeth nodded.

"What about you? Do you play any sports?" Nico asked Annabeth curiously.

Annabeth rubbed the back of her neck. "I…err… Nope. No sports at all."

Nico lifted his nose to sniff the air. "Do you smell that? It smells like bullshit."

Percy laughed and Annabeth punched him in the shoulder. His laughing only continued, although he was now rubbing the spot.

Then a beeping sound went off and Nico checked his watch. "Man… I've got to go. I've got Mr. Heph for engineering. Catch you both later."

Nico gathered his things and stuffed them in a black backpack and ran off in the direction of his next class.

Percy leaned back and put his arms behind his head.

"Don't you have any classes to be getting to?" Annabeth asked suspiciously.

Percy lazily checked his watch. "Nah. I got an hour until I have theater with Mr. Z."

Annabeth nodded.

"So what kind of sports are you doing?" Percy asked suddenly

"Uh… what?" Annabeth said.

Percy snorted. "And they call you 'Intelligent'. Can't see why with that sentence. Nico was right, you know, you can't lie. At all. You got too many tells. I asked you what sport you were thinking of doing."

Annabeth just rubbed the back of her neck. "Well, I was thinking of joining the swim team. But I'm not really that fast. My parents always wanted me to be more active. "

Percy cracked open an eye to peer curiously at her. "Well, I could help you with that. You need to be willing though."

Annabeth gawked at him. "Are you sure? I mean, you got your own schedule to worry about."

Percy sat up. "Look, even if my schedule was full, I would still make room anyways. You helped me tons in calculus. It's thanks to you that I'm passing that class."

Annabeth smiled. "Thanks Perce."

Percy got up and picked up his backpack. "Well, I gotta go. Here's my number. Give me a call when you want to start." He handed her a scrap of paper with his number written across a line in Sharpie. Then he walked away, whistling a quick tune.

Long after he disappeared from eyesight, Annabeth looked at the messy scrawl and smiled fondly to herself.

* * *

Annabeth looked over the number being displayed on her phone's screen. Finally, she pressed the call button. A couple seconds passed before a bleary voice answered the phone.

"Hello?" came a slurred reply.

"Percy! Are you drunk?" Annabeth exclaimed.

"Huh? What? No… You just woke me up." Percy slurred again.

Annabeth's eyes darted to the clock. "Dude! It's eleven thirty!"

"And it's a Saturday." he retorted.

Annabeth grumbled to herself. True enough.

"Whatever. Can we work on swimming today?" Annabeth asked. There was silence on the line for a couple seconds.

"Yeah sure. Meet me by the entrance of campus." came the sleep laced reply.

"Sure thing. See you."

Ten minutes later Annabeth was rushing to the entrance, only to see that Percy was already there.

Percy just grinned maniacally. "Let's go."

Annabeth inwardly groaned. She was starting to seriously question her sanity.

* * *

Many hours later Annabeth stumbled out of her shower and flopped onto her bunk, groaning in pain. Percy left to relax under the tree for a bit. Percy was a complete slave driver. He insisted on pushing her to her limits and beyond.

Annabeth's dorm mate, a girl with spiky black hair and bright blue eyes, peered down at her curiously. "What's up?"

Annabeth lifted her head to glance at her friend before letting out a groan of pain and letting her head bounce down on the bed again.

"Percy… is a bloody slave driver."

Her dorm mate let out an amused snort.

"Shut it Thalia. You wouldn't last an hour let alone 3."

"Yeah. That's 'cause I don't swim. Won't ever swim as a matter of fact." Thalia stated calmly.

"Yeah. I can't deny that." Annabeth grumbled in defeat.

Thalia just rolled over and grinned, so how's your boyfriend doing?"

Annabeth's face turned red in embarrassment. "He's not my boyfriend!"

"Not now, but maybe… sometime in the future?" Thalia questioned with a smirk.

Annabeth groaned and pushed herself to her feet despite the screaming protests of her tired muscles.

Thalia rose to her feet too. "Where're you going?"

Annabeth glared at her. "Anywhere but here."

Thalia pulled herself to her feet and put on her shoes. Then she stood up and grinned.

"Lead the way, cap'n."

Annabeht just sighed and trudged out the door and shambled out of the building in the direction of the tree. Thalia just followed close behind, smiling at her friend's predicament.

A couple minutes later the two caught sight of two boys sitting lounging against the tree trunk. Percy had those navy blue headphones slung around his neck again while he was talking to Nico. Annabeth plopped down next to Percy with a groan.

Percy looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "You know, it's not nice to bring guests and not introduce them.

"Sorry 'bout that. Percy, Nico, this is Thalia. Thalia, these are Percy and Nico." Annabeth said as she pointed at each of the boys in turn.

Percy stuck a hand out at Thalia. "Nice to meet you."

Thalia sent a sidelong smirk at me as she shook his hand. "Likewise."

Nico nodded a short wasssup movement at Thalia. Thalia just grinned and returned the gesture.

The four of them just sat by the tree until the sun began to go down, chatting about lives back home, favorite pastimes, and just having a great time. As they talked, Annabeth kept noticing that Thailia kept sneaking furtive glances at an unsuspecting Nico Di Angelo. Annabeth smirked internally. This was definitely something she wanted to tease Thalia about when they got back to the dorm.

Percy glanced at his watch. "Well, it's getting late, we should really be heading back."

Annabeth and Thalia waved goodbye and set off at a brisk trot in the direction of their building.

"So. What do you think of Nico?" Annabeth asked, a slight smirk on her face.

Thalia just flushed but stayed quiet. Annabeth laughed lightly.

* * *

Months came and went, but not a weekend passed by without at least one congregation by the tree. Swim season rolled around and Percy and Annabeth joined up. They quickly became the two most dominant athletes on the team. Under Percy's tutelage, Annabeth's skill skyrocketed to new heights. And to the dismay of the four, the end of the year rolled around amidst a flurry of disappointment.

Percy stood next to the curb, hands shoved deep in his pockets. "I'm gonna miss that place. We'll be coming back next year, right?"

Nico shrugged. "My parents are pretty unpredictable. I can never tell what they want to do."

Thalia socked Nico. "You better be coming back next year. Or I'm gonna hunt you down, Angel Boy.

Nico just rolled his eyes. "Whatever you say, Gracie."

Annabeth just shook her head in mock exasperation. "I'm probably coming back. I'm just looking forward to doing some actual work done without you three distracting me."

Percy pretended to be offended but his smile ruined the effect. "You know you love us, Chase."

"Don't count on it, Jackson."

A car honked at the four of them and Percy grinned. "That's my ride. Oh, and before you guys go, I left my number in your backpacks. Should be on a note card. And check out the tree, will ya?"

Nico and Thalia scrambled in their backpacks for that little card. When they found it, we ran all the way across campus to the tree.

"What did he want us to find?!" Nico shouted in frustration, running a hand through his hair.

Suddenly a thought occurred to Annabeth. She dropped down on her hands and knees. There, right where she remembered was Percy's name. But three others had been added.

"Thalia G, Nico D.A, Annabeth C." I whispered.

Nico and Thalia high fived. "Looks like we have something to come back to."

Annabeth just smiled.

Maybe, just maybe, this was one study spot she wouldn't mind sharing.

* * *

THANKS FOR READING! Leave a review if you liked it, or there is something you think I need to work on.


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